University of Virginia Library

Search this document 
The poems and literary prose of Alexander Wilson

... for the first time fully collected and compared with the original and early editions ... edited ... by the Rev. Alexander B. Grosart ... with portrait, illustrations, &c

expand sectionI. 
collapse sectionII. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
EPIGRAM.
  
  
  
expand section 
expand section 
expand sectionIII. 
expand sectionIV. 

EPIGRAM.

ADDRESSED TO A FRIEND.

If cares can quench the poet's fire,
And damp each cheerful-rising thought;
Make Wilson drooping drop the lyre,
Ere he perhaps a theme has sought;
Sure if there liv'd a friendly swain,
Mild, merry, generous to the poet;
Inspiring joy, expelling pain,
To please inclin'd, and kind to show it.
Can words tell how my heart would leap,
How throb to meet a swain so true!
Exclaim you, with affection deep,
‘Lives such a swain’?—he lives in you.